Tobias's Baby
by katjazz
Summary: This is after Rachel died, and Tobias's reaction... As well as the secret he'd been sharing with Rachel
1. The End

The End, chapter 1

Author's note: this is at the end of the series, after Rachel has died. Please not that at one point in the story, the name Mrs. Bernson is used, I believe this is a made up name

©Animorphs belongs to K.A. Applegate

It was over. The Yeerks were dead. So was Rachel. The Animorphs were no longer complete. The only thing was, Tobias was left alone with a child that Rachel had brought them shortly before her death. It was difficult for her, but she was strong. She never let anyone know that she was at a discomfort, though Tobias new she was. That's what he loved about her; her incredible perseverance. Tobias knew that this day would come, and, lucky for him, the battle was over, and it wasn't a huge difference, though he would miss flying through the sky, or crawling across the ground, eye level to the bugs. But not as much as he missed Rachel, and he knew, that he would have to do it, in order to take care of his daughter. He demorphed from a hawk, to a human, for the last time.

"Tobias, are you sure this is what you want to do, already? We can take care of Lauren, until we find the blue box," Jake asked him

"Yeah, Tobias, we can," Cassie agreed, as tears began flowing down her face, at the thought of Rachel no longer being with them

"No, she's my daughter, I can take care of her, I wouldn't want you to have to do that for me," Tobias said, holding the small blonde baby in his hands. She had her father's eyes, but he could tell she had the dare-devil personality of her mother.

"its not fair, how young she was, when she died, and her baby was only a month old," Cassie said, giving Tobias a friendly sideways hug, tears streaming down her face freely now, as she pulled away.

"ya, 15," Jake said, also with tears in his eyes, as he put his arm around Cassie,

"and to have a kid that young…" Marco said under his breath… hoping no one heard, though Jake sent him a fierce look.

what is the human process of reproduction? ax asked in thought speak

"We don't need to go there ax, seriously" said Marco, and everyone gave an uneasy laugh

Tobias stared into baby Lauren's eye's, tears streaming down his face, and he gave a sad smile, thinking of how happy Rachel had been, when she first held this baby in her arms, and how she would never do it again. Lauren began to cry, and Tobias held her closely to him. "It's ok, Lauren, we'll make it through this," he whispered to her.

"Tobias, where will you live?" Cassie asked him cautiously

"I don't know, I suppose I'll have to go back with my aunt, if she remembers me…"

"you can't do that Tobias, that's no place to raise a baby, or yourself," Jake said

"I don't know where else to go," Tobias said quietly

"maybe Rachel's house, I'm sure her mom would take you," Jake said, "or you could come with me, now that tom isn't a controller anymore, it's safer,"

"I'll check at Rachel's house I guess, and then we'll see what happens," he said, "Thanks Jake, for everything, you've always been there, standing up for me, helping me,"

Tears were coming down his face, "and the same to all of you, having the Animorphs… well, it changed my life. It gave me friends. Gave me more than friends…" he said thinking about Rachel. He put Lauren into the baby carrier that used to be Rachel's little sister's, he picked up Lauren, "I guess I'd better go to Rachel's house, now that I think of it, her mom did offer to let me stay with them… I guess Rachel had to tell her everything the day before… well, you know, we all did." _Except me_he thought to himself

"we'll walk with you there," said Jake, standing up from the hay that he had been sitting on, and then pulled Cassie to her feet. It was one of the few times that she hadn't been tending to the many animals in the barn. Ax began morphing to human, and Marco stood up.

"thanks guys," Tobias said, and together they walked out to Rachel's house, since normally they had flown there, they never realized how far it was from the barn to her home. Tobias saw a red-tailed hawk fly overhead, soaring through the sky. Tobias thought about how he would never do that again. When they were a block away, Tobias said, "I'll continue from here guys, thanks for coming with me,"

"I'll walk the rest of the way with you, I wanted to stop by and see my aunt anyway," Jake said, and turned to the others "I'll be back soon," as he and Tobias walked on, the others waited behind, "she was an amazing girl, wasn't she?"

"ya, I loved her so much," Tobias agreed

"Your lucky to have a girl as great as her,"

"or had, anyway," Tobias said sadly, looking down at Lauren

"no, you still have her Tobias, she's still with you, as long as you keep loving her, she'll be with you," Jake said, tears glistening in his eyes, "can I hold her?"

"sure," Tobias said, and sat down the baby carrier, and unbuckled her, and handed her to Jake, "be careful though,"

"of course," he said, and stroked her small head, "wow, I have a second cousin," he said, with realization, "even though she's been here a month, I've been so busy, that it's just now sunk in,"

"ya, I had a couple months for it to sink in, when I found out she was pregnant," Tobias said, "I can't believe we tried to keep the baby a secret from you guys, but that's why she couldn't morph I guess,"

"we all couldn't believe it when we saw Rachel was gaining so much weight," Jake said, and chuckled slightly, as he put Lauren back into her carrier, and rang the doorbell at Rachel's house

"I'm going to be human again," Tobias said, "wow." Rachel's mom opened the door,

"hello Jake, and Tobias, what a pleasant surprise!" she said, trying to be happy, but Jake and Tobias could tell she too was upset about Rachel

"umm… you know how you said Tobias could live with you… well, he'd like to take you up on that offer," Jake told her,

"oh, that's lovely… you can have her…her old room…" she said, sadly, as she led them into the house,

"thank you so much, you don't know how great this is for me," Tobias said,

"well, Tobias, I'll let you go, I'll see you guys later," Jake said, turning to leave

"has it been hard for you, Tobias, dear?" Rachel's mom asked Tobias

"you have no idea, Mrs. Bernson," Tobias said, picking up Lauren and slowly rocking her in his arms

"Please, call me mom, but not Mrs. Bernson, since you're my son-in-law." She said

"ok, mom…" he said, "…this is the first time I've ever called someone mom…"

Mrs. Bernson, had tears in her eyes, "you can head up to R-Rachel's room if you want,"

"thanks Mrs.- um… mom," he said, picking up the carrier, as he held Lauren in the other hand, "I know this is a lot to ask, but do you have some sort of crib or something for Lauren?"

"its not a problem at all, dear, downstairs in the basement I think we have one of the girl's old ones, I'll help you bring it up," she said

"thanks mom…" he said, putting the carrier down and putting Lauren down, "I'll be right back, ok honey?" he said quietly to her, as one of Rachel's little sisters came downstairs, "Can you make sure she's ok, just watch her for a few minutes, while your mom and I bring up a crib for her to Rach-Rachel's room"

"Tobias and Lauren are going to live with us from now on," said Mrs. Bernson

"Yay!" said Rachel's sister as she sat down next to Lauren, "I'll keep an eye on her for you,"

Tobias and Mrs. Bernson walked down the stairs to the basement, and found the white crib, as they carried it upstairs, and set it in Rachel's room, Tobias heard Lauren crying, "thanks Mrs.-mom, I'd better go check on Lauren," he said, running downstairs.

"I'm sorry, Tobias, I don't know what's wrong, she just started crying," Rachel's sister said

"its ok, thanks for watching her for me," he said, as he picked Lauren up and held her close to him, rubbing his hand up and down her back to calm her down. "I'm gonna take her upstairs, kay?"

"ok"

Tobias went up the stairs and walked around the room, holding her, and humming a simple tune, she was crying still though, and Tobias was doing all he could to calm her, though all he wanted to do was sit down and cry with her. He realized that she wanted her mother, just as much as Tobias wanted her. Tobias sat on Rachel's bed, he thought of how he had helped create Lauren, right in this very bed, and now he was sitting there, with his and Rachel's creation, but Rachel wasn't there to enjoy what she had worked so hard to make, he cried along with Lauren, and he pulled our a bottle of milk from the diaper bag he had bought when she was first born, and gave it to Lauren, and she quickly calmed down and fell asleep, he laid her in her crib, where she slept soundly. He decided to lay down on Rachel's bed, and thought about her. All the memories they had. He wished that they had gotten together earlier though, where they would have had many months, even years, more time together than the 10 months that they had.

* * *

End chapter one. 


	2. Life Goes on, Though it May Not Seem So

Life Goes on, Though it May Not Seem So, chapter 2

Tobias continued to lie there on the bed, letting the tears stream down his face. _Life will go on_he thought to himself, _I __guess…_

He looked at the corkboard with the many quotes it had, mainly about surviving. He thought that maybe, those quotes kept her from dying sooner than she had. He got up, and went to the computer, and turned it on. There was one account on the computer, and it was Rachel's, when it asked for a password, he typed in "Animorphs" amazingly, it worked. When the computer had loaded, he saw the desktop background, was a red tailed hawk. He smiled to himself, and clicked on the internet icon. When the page opened, Tobias clicked on favorites, and went to Rachel's blog. He had never seen it before, and he read through some of the entries. One of them was called, "a little inside secret" he realized that only he understood that Rachel was explaining her pregnancy. Her display picture was red tailed hawk. Lauren began to cry. Tobias closed down the computer, and went to tend to her.


End file.
